Page 1: Intro, Packaging, Modules

Intro:

I've always been keen to recommend Crucial in the past when people wanted RAM with a lifetime warranty that works as expected. Not until a few years ago did Crucial start offering their Ballistix overclocking RAM. Fast forward to the new DDR3 days of today and we find a new Ballistix PC3-16000 kit that offers speeds of 2000MHz! You'll be pressed to find a board that can even handle this speed, I know I didn't have one.

Packaging:

Crucial has been using the same brown box for years. Why change something that works well?

The modules themselves are wrapped in ESD wrap and separated from each other by dividers so they will survive a trip through any shipping company... unless a forklift smashes it.

The standard light specifications are given on the static wrap. Yes, these are CL9 modules.

Modules:

As is standard with the Ballistix line, you get the gold and black look. The heatspreaders are gold with silver trim and the PCB is black. With the newer modules, the heatspreaders are very well bonded to the RAM and it takes a blow torch to remove them. That's something I don't suggest doing.

With a rated stock speed of DDR3-2000 (PC3-16000), you'll be pressed to find a system that can even handle the stock speed of these modules. Talk about future proofing your hardware purchase. Like all Crucial modules made today, these have SPD values that default to a lower safe speed and voltage when just starting up. Interestingly, these modules contain EPP for use with Nvidia chipsets which is a change from the previous PC3-12800 kit which used XMP. Latencies for 2000MHz are 9-9-9-28 with a command rate of 2T running at 1.9V. DDR3 modules seem to handle high voltage well since the standard voltage is 1.5V. You do get a lifetime warranty, though.

These modules are lead free as most parts are today. Green is good. Remember my thoughts on technologies such as EPP and XMP. If you are lazy, go for it. I like to tweak my system by hand instead of relying on what it wants to do.

The heatspreader is well bonded to the modules and it looks like these are single sided modules.

A first for Crucial is the placement of the latencies on the modules itself. You can clearly see the needed information. 9-9-9-28 at 1.9V running at 2000MHz. I'm glad Crucial is finally placing this information as previous modules lacked.